I was sick last week, only with a cold, but it caught me by surprise (as it often does) and I was out of action for four or five days.

Dannielle Cresp of Style For A Happy Home has started creating kits or boxes full of things you might need for a certain event. So far she’s created an ultimate gift wrapping kit and a kiddo friendly visitor kit. So I’m wanting to make an “In Case Of Cold” kit so that I’m ready the next time the sniffles strike (I always seem to be caught with either no tissues in the house, or those really cheap ones that grate against your nose!).

I won’t be actually assembling the kit until I move house, because I’ll be moving in less than a month and there’s too much other stuff to organise between now and then. But here’s the list of things I’ll put into the box when the time comes:

Effervescent vitamin C tablets (forces me to drink more water that way).

Zinc tablets (more effective than vitamin C according to my dad).

Ibuprofen tablets (because sometimes a cold will give me an unshakeable headache or a really sore throat and painkillers are the only thing that will let me get enough sleep to chase the cold away).

$50 in cash (for buying fresh lemons/ginger/garlic/honey etc. and for ordering food to be delivered if I can’t make it myself and no-one’s home to cook for me).

2 cans of vegetable soup.

A permission slip that gives me permission to: stay in bed, be unproductive, call in sick to work/uni, sleep all day.

A reminder notebook with home remedy recipes, instructions for sweating it out and reminders to eat and drink lots and lots. The kinds of things you can forget when your head is so foggy you can barely see straight.

This stuff will all go into a plastic tub or large shoe box and I’ll keep it in the hall cupboard for when it’s needed. Hopefully I’ll not need it for a while now, but if I do, it’s one less thing to think about when I’m focused on recovering asap.